Paracelsus, Five Hundred Years, three American Exhibits, 1993

Paracelsus, Five

Hundred Years

Three American Exhibits

Bethesda, Md National Library of Medicine Building 38 Lobby September - December, 1993

xxxxx Philadelphia, Hahnemann University,

October

-

Pa The Library

December, 1993

Mo

Louis, Washington University School of Medicine Library St.

March

-

July, 1994

PARACELSUS,

Five Hundred Years: Three American Exhibits.

Bethesda, Maryland: Published by the Friends of the National

Library of Medicine,

Inc., for the Hahnemann University Library, The National Library of Medicine, and the Washington University

School of Medicine

(St.

Louis), 1993.

Acknowledgements Funding to publish this brochure was provided by the Hahnemann University Library and by the Washington University School of Medicine

(St.

Louis).

Other assistance respective exhibits

Hahnemann

in the preparation

was provided

University Library:

Sandra L. Chaff (Consultant); Judith Baker, Carol Fenichel,

Lowe

Randall

of the booklet and/or of the

as follows:

Washington University: Susan Alon (Rare Book Librarian); Lilla Wechsler, Paul

Anderson, Susan Crawford, National Library of Medicine:

Gerhild Scholz-Williams;

Allen G. Debus (consultant);

The Robert

Graphics: Joseph Fitzgerald

Collection-St. Louis

and Becky Cagle;

Metropolitan Medical

E. Schlueter

History of Medicine

Society;

Division: Stephen Greenberg

The Horncrest Foundation, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures

Margaret Kaiser, Lucy Keister, Jan Lazarus,

Martha-Lucia

Amanda

Sierra,

Sprochi, David

Vecchioli,

Monique Young,

James Cassedy

Single copies of this brochure

by writing

to

may

be obtained without charge

one of the sponsoring organizations.

Front cover

illustration:

Paracelsus is shown surrounded by various philosophical symbols, including his famous sword. From Paracelsus: Etliche Tractaten, zum ander Mai in Truck auszgangen. Vom Podagra und In this portrait

seinem Speciebus

(Coin, 1567).

Washington University

Collection.

Introduction

This booklet highlights the joint observance of the 500th anniversary of the

special exhibits which,

along with lectures and other programs, are being

birth of Paracelsus

by three

organized

American medical

libraries

The

at these libraries.

intent of the various

events

is

to celebrate as

well as to explain the contributions of this major

Renaissance figure, especially those in

medicine, chemistry, and pharmacy. The brochure also serves to

draw

attention to the unique

special collections

and

strong general holdings pertaining to Paracelsus that are held

by the

sponsoring institutions.

The theme essay in this brochure has been prepared

by Dr. Allen G. Debus of the University of Chicago,

who

is

the leading

American authority on Paracelsus and his historical influence.

Some

few of Dr. Debus 's publications are cited in the list

of

Some Readings on

Paracelsus, which follows his essay.

— The Hahnemann University Library,

The

National Library of

Medicine, and The Washington University

Medical Library (St. Louis). It has been prepared to accompany the

Also pertinent,

however, is his recent book, The French Paracelsians, published in 1991.

Illustrations in the

brochure are from the collections of the National Library of Medicine and

Washington University.

PARACELSUS AND THE MEDICAL REVOLUTION OF THE RENAISSANCE

A 500th Anniversary Celebration by Allen G. Debus Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science and Medicine

The University of Chicago

Paracelsus (1493-1541),

more properly Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, was born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland in

1493, one year after Columbus' first

voyage

He was

to the

New

World.

a contemporary of

the

Middle Ages. They

texts

survived in isolated monasteries

discovery of the

and they studied Greek so that they might translate these

explorers.

.

.

.

felt first in

and

history,

but by the late fifteenth century

associate with the shattering of

there

medieval thought and the birth of the modern world.

in the sciences and medicine.

Astronomers and mathematicians

change no less than the others. During his lifetime

was an increasing

more frequently on

for Copernicus'

scientific debates of the late

the inno-

interest

on the

truths of antiquity

became increasingly dependent upon the writings of Galen, the "Prince of Physicians."

In

short, with the corrected

translations of ancient

Ptolemy's

sixteenth century were centered

"Luther of Medicine" and the

made by contemporary The result was a new

sought an accurate text of

Almagest and both the observations and the mathematics of this text were to form the foundation

he was called by some the

lands

reliance

literature, rhetoric

part in this

new

and establishment medicine

was

new

as exciting as the

This search for the work of ancient authors

In fact, Paracelsus played a

being

seemed

treasures of the ancient world.

Luther, Leonardo da Vinci and

we

humanists the discovery of

manuscripts that might have

Nicholas Copernicus, Martin a host of other figures

A.D. Indeed, for many

travelled in search of old

De

vations of Paracelsus than they

revolutionibus

were on the heliocentric astronomy of Copernicus.

orbium (1543). In medicine Galen, Hippocrates, and

Renaissance Humanism

How may we intellectual

characterize the

world

in

which

Dioscorides were newly translated from Greek. The

Paracelsus lived? Surely a

recovery of the

major factor was Renaissance

medical writings of

humanism— the

Celsus was highly

antiquity in

all

Authors sought

fascination with

of

its

aspects.

to write a

stylistically pure Latin to

replace the barbarous Latin of

influential

because

they presented

medical terminology in the elegant

of the

first

Latin

century

Numerous Renaissance physicians favored the teachings of Hippocrates over those of Galen.

From Justi Cortnummii, Di morbo attonito liber unus ad Hippocraticam (Lipsiae, 1677) .

.

.

3

authors

—and more important, new

the discovery of

manuscripts a

scholars for

lost to

thousand years

—

it

was

thought possible to restore the real truths

of both Aristotelian

natural philosophy

and Galenic

speak of a hermetic seal

transmutation of the base metals to gold, but more important was the separation by chemical

means of the pure essence of a substance from

medicine.

However, the recovery of

in

chemistry. Traditional alchemy did include a belief in the

its

impurities.

Through such processes

Paracelsus While

still

became aware of many of the conflicting currents of his age.

His father was a physician

(frequently through distillation)

was not limited

translation

to

number of mining towns. The boy surely learned some

It is

impressed on earthly things by the Creator for their proper use

many lesser figures there were new areas of study made available to

(and then lost Fall)

Renaissance scholars.

more of our Creator while

addition to the works of

Important

among them was

the

this

at the

time of the

might be rediscovered. In

we would

fashion

learn

recovering His gifts through our

we could

recovery of the Corpus

labor.

Hermeticum, a group of

to find substances of medicinal

treatises

supposedly written

in

Egypt by Hermes Trismegistus at

about the time of

Abraham

Surely

value in this way.

by 1500 the impact of the newly recovered

was leading

texts

composed

directions.

until late antiquity.

that a

treatises felt

magus, a true natural

On

two one hand the

in

the

natural philosophers and

physicians of the schools had

magician, would be able to

developed an increased respect

understand man, the micro-

for Aristotle,

cosm, through his study of the

ancient authorities.

macrocosm since the former was a perfect representation of

other hand, the recovery of the

the latter.

Some

physicians

were

to find this a

their

work.

No

new key

less

to

appealing

Galen and other

On

the

Corpus Hermeticum and other more mystical texts placed an emphasis on natural magic, the relationship of

man

to the

was

the fact that this call for

macrocosm, and sought divine

new

observations in nature

truths in the study of nature.

could be seen as an act of

The

first

path led to truth

home

at

likely that he learned

some

He

folk medicine as well.

also

picked up some alchemy from his father

who had an interest And in mining

in

the subject.

towns he would have observed metallurgical practices as well as the diseases that afflicted the

men who worked Traditionally

it

that Paracelsus

In short,

although they had not been

Authors of these

expect

medicine

through observing his father.

the true divine signatures

works of Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy, and Dioscorides. In

the

in

Einsiedeln and he practiced in a

practical

ancient classics and their

a youth Paracelsus

the mines.

has been said

was taught by

several bishops and the occultist

abbot of Sponheim, Johannes Trithemius. At the age of fourteen the boy

left

home

to

begin a long period of

wandering.

He

apparently

number of universities, but there is no proof that he ever took a medical degree. As visited a

an adult, however, he picked up practical medical

knowledge by

working as a surgeon

in a

number of the mercenary armies that ravaged Europe

in

the seemingly endless wars of the period.

He wrote

that

he

devotion. Christians should

through traditional medicine

study not only Holy Scripture,

most of the countries of Central, Northern, and Eastern

and a reliance on mathematics and the physics of motion for

Europe.

but also the clearly

our understanding of nature: the

book of nature, a second book of divine

revelation.

Hermes was known not only to the Church Fathers, but also as one of the great figures

of alchemy. Even today

4

we

visited

It is

only in the final

fifteen years of his life that the

second led to a more mystical and religious basis of

records of his travels become

knowledge and turned to chemistry as a key to man and

to Basel to treat a leg ailment of

nature alike.

clearer.

the

In 1527 he

was

called

famed publisher of humanist

The Chemical Philosophy At the time of his death Paracelsus seems to have been well

known

as a physician, but

not as an author.

He had

published several almanacs and a few medical works, but only

one major

text, the Grosse Wundartzney (1536) which had gone into a second edition the following year. Here he

appeared as a medical practitioner discussing

ulcers,

and

wounds,

their cure with

salves and balms.

A particularly

interesting section treats the

wounds caused by gunpowder

—

clearly a reflection of a

growing problem

in sixteenth-

century warfare.

It

was well over

a decade

after his death before physicians

began scripts

to look for his

and

to publish

manuthem

frequently with commentaries

of their own. his

By 1570 many

works were

in print

of

along

with treatises written by a

Johannes Frobenius.

In Basel Paracelsus also gave

Avicenna's revered Canon of medicine to the blaze. Then,

medical advice to the Dutch

his patient, Frobenius, died.

classics,

scholar Erasmus and

This was followed by a

contact with

disastrous lawsuit and he

came in some of the more

prominent scholars of the religious Reformation.

He was

left

Basel in haste, even leaving

behind his manuscripts.

The

appointed city physician and professor of medicine. But

final years

find Paracelsus

of his

life

moving from

although he was permitted to

town

to

lecture at the University of

often

left his

Basel, he had no official

He as an angry man who antagonized many of those he met even those who tried

appointment with the medical faculty there.

Almost immediately Paracelsus became a figure of contention.

He heaped

scorn on

the conservative physicians of the University, and, at the St.

John's

Day

bonfire, threw

growing number of disciples.

In these works we find a strong

town, and again, he manuscripts

behind as he had

in Basel.

comes across

—

to help him.

In the

end he was

called to Salzburg to treat the

suffragan bishop, Ernest of Wittelsbach. There he died the early age of forty-eight.

at

Erasmus

of

Rotterdam 1469-1536.

Print of engraving,

NLM

collection

5

Another object of the Paracelsians' attack

was

the

ancient system of elements: Earth, Air, Water and Fire with their attendant qualities

and

humors. This was a complex system, but a potentially fragile one, since a rejection of even

one might

result in a collapse of

the whole.

The Paracelsians in Holy

argued that nowhere Scripture

is

there reference to the

creation of fire and therefore

it

cannot be considered an element.

Still,

the four elements were not

categorically denied by

Renaissance surgical scene. From Paracelsus, Opus chyrurgicum Artzney Buch (Franckfurt am Mayn, 1565)

in the

all,

and

course of the seventeenth

und century a five element/principle

system evolved

in the

works of

the chemists and the chemical

challenge to the educational

well as Galen's

establishment and

its

on ancient

its

reliance

Some

authorities.

Paracelsians took pride in the fact that they

had not gone

the universities at

all,

to

The use of

(1571).

weights and measures for the

— and even

avoiding the useless knowledge

physician

they would have been subjected

the mystical use of

to.

Those who did not go

to the

universities turned instead to

—

two-book theory reliance on Holy Scripture and on personal observations and experience. Here they found the

chemistry particularly valuable since

it

this,

numbers

as one

chemistry

might

find in the hermetic

texts— but not the logical-geometrical use

of mathematics. Far

more acceptable was

the

analogy of the great

world and

separated pure from

impure. Beyond

man which

might be used as a guide Paracelsus had

became a basis for explaining both macrocosmic and microcosmic phenomena. Even the Creator was pictured as a divine

theory has searched

alchemist in commentaries on

deeply and gravely by

the first chapter of Genesis.

aspects, astronomical

The Paracelsians

differed

sharply from the ancients in their discussion of In his

summary of Paracelsian

medicine, Peter Severinus

argued

6

that Aristotle's

work

to truth.

written that "everything

which astronomical

tables forth,

mathematics.

as

physicians.

mathematical logic

was acceptable

thus

was flawed by

overemphasis on

and so

—

this

self-same

knowledge should be a lesson and teaching to

Diagram illustrating the convergence of elements, humors, and geocosmic factors the thinking of Paracelsian chemical physicians. From Annibal Barlet, Le Vray

you concerning the

et

bodily firmament."

(Paris,

methodique Cours de 1653)

.

.

.

Chymie

in

Element theory was only one aspect of macrocosmic If the

interest.

Creation was to

for the divine signatures.

an alchemist separating pure

This was unavoidable since a

from impure. Thus, the

knowledge of the macrocosm

be understood primarily as an

led directly to hitherto

alchemical separation from an

secrets of

chaos, then

initial

it

in

geocosmic explanations.

was

Distillation

employed

the

model

for rain, volcanic

eruptions, and the origin of

mountain streams. Indeed, the earth itself

was viewed

maintaining the health of the

—even among

at the surface.

to a

rejected

much

of the ancient

legacy, they remained

wedded world astral

seed with a proper matrix. The

matured

in the

much as a fetus And indeed,

in the

resultant ore

earth

mother.

there

life spirit that is essential

By

was

a

for

the final

identified as an

The Medical Chemistry

his followers consciously

sought a

based upon the macrocosmmicrocosm analogy. Chemistry

was

to

be a key to

this

new

man was new

philosophy which

uncover through

observations and the search

Examples were the tartaric diseases where stony predeveloped

in the

— —

kidneys or the bladder or in the

as

case of tuberculosis

in

The

essentially localized

Paracelsians differed from the

Von der Bergsucht oder

humoral explanations of the

Bergkranckheiten drey Biicher

Galenists. Utilizing the ancient

(1533-34) he prepared the

concept of the four humors

first

book on miners'

—

(blood, phlegm, yellow and

was the book specifically on an indeed,

it

occupational disease.

And

his discussion of syphilis

in

[Vom

black bile) which were associated with the elements, the

Galenists argued that health

derived from a proper balance

Holtz Guaiaco griindlicher

of these fluids while disease

hey lung (1529) and Von der

was the result of imbalance.

The physician might note an excess of blood from a ruddy

Franzdsischen kranckheit Drey Biicher (1530)] he criticized including the popular use of

complexion, yellow bile through the yellowing asso-

guaiac.

ciated with jaundice, black bile specific medical

problems were less inflammatory than concepts that seemed to directly challenge Galenic

authority.

new world system

and poisons accumulated.

other current problems as well.

of the Paracelsians of the ancients, Paracelsus and

failed

seats of diseases of the

Works on

a replacement for the works

the directive force in an organ

the lungs.

in

current methods of treatment

aerial niter or saltpeter.

As

wounds

when

But Paracelsus was aware of

first is

decade of the sixteenth century this spirit

growing problem

body. Illness occurred

cipitates

caused by gunshot clearly spoke

diseases

both the organic and the inorganic worlds.

chapters on the cure of

In his

view. Metals originated in the

from a union of an

rejected Paracelsus'

sixteenth-century medicine.

to the ancient vitalistic

earth

the

those

who

the Paracelsians

Similarly, other

book dealing with specific medical problems as well as preparation of balms and plasters that were widely

cosmological views. The

if

intestines.

organs had their function in

which heated underground reservoirs and lava both of which might erupt But

The

Grosse Wundartzney was a

large distillation flask with a fiery center

eliminated through the

practical side to all of this.

heralded

as a

from the dross which was

man.

There was clearly a

seemed

appropriate to use this analogy

unknown

stomach separated the nutritional part of foodstuffs

Among

the latter,

Paracelsus' repeated use of

through diarrhoea, or phlegm

from a running nose. Even uroscopy might be employed

to

diagnose an illness through a sample of urine without

chemistry and chemical

examining the actual patient since a humoral excess would

analogies was particularly

be evident in the sample.

objectionable to the medical to

establishment.

As an example

one

may

that

each bodily organ acted as

turn to his conviction

The Paracelsian

rejection

of humoral medicine was clearly a fundamental break

with medical tradition.

No

less

7

numerous compounds of mercury, lead, arsenic and

antimony, almost

all

of which

would be avoided today.

The Paracelsian Debates The growing interest in the works of Paracelsus in the third quarter of the sixteenth century led to an ever increasing

number of publications, translations

on

and commentaries

his works.

At stake was the

question of educational reform, the relation of religion to

science and medicine, and the Depiction of urine examination, Seventeenth Century. Print, "Le Medecin Empyrique," by David Teniers, II, 1610-1690, NLM collection

relative value of ancient

authority to fresh observational

evidence. The role of chemistry

of this was crucial.

in all

so was their method of cure.

by the ancients, but the great

The Galenists argued

that

bulk of traditional remedies

contraries cure. That

is,

It

were derived from plant

a

tion in terms of stark contrasts.

was

disease of a certain quality and

substances. This balance

magnitude would be cured by a medicine of opposed quality

shift

argued that the

and magnitude. The Paracelsians

diseases of their age required

with the chemists

to

who

new and

violent

turned rather to folk tradition

stronger medicines. Neither the

arguing that like cures

medieval herbals nor the works

poison

in the

like: a

body would be

cured by a similar poison.

when

And

the Galenists charged that

of the ancients described

and other new diseases

were a veritable legion of homicide

of metals and their compounds

physicians, the latter replied

seemed

the Paracelsians

that their

medicines were safe

successfully.

The

internal use

essential to them.

Used

as purges and vomatives their

was

more

because they had been altered

action

chemically; moreover, careful

than the old herbal mixtures. In

attention

had been paid

to

These medical reformers not only proposed a

new

to cure, they also

emphasized a new materia medica.

some

class of

To be

sure,

metallic and mineral

substances had been employed

8

some cases

the

violent

Galenists accused their

opponents with murder.

we examine

When

the chemical and

pharmaceutical books of the late sixteenth

and the seven-

teenth centuries

we

sure, Peter Severinus

sought to establish the superiority of Paracelsism to

Galenism in his important Idea medicinae philosophicae (1571) while

Thomas

Erastus upheld

Galen and damned the innovations of Paracelsus in his

Disputationes de medicina nova Paracelsi (1572-1574). These

were but the opening salvos of a confrontational literature that

extended over more than a century.

new medicines

proved too strong and the

dosage.

approach

truly

To be

the authority of Aristotle and

substances that could combat syphilis

would be wrong to growing confronta-

picture the

see

directions for the preparation of

there

And yet from the beginning were those who sought to

chart a middle course.

Albertus

Wimpenaeus of

Munich wrote

his

Hippocraticorum

De

concordia

et

Paracelsistarum in 1569 and here he admitted that although

he followed Paracelsus

in

some

was

matters he also followed the

Even more

ancient authorities.

the use of

chemistry

In France the

Johannes Guinter of Andernach,

who

late in life,

began to read

internal use of

the Paracelsian texts. In his

massive

De medicina

veteri et

noua ...(1571) Guinter held

much

to

of traditional medical

theory, but he

hoped

much

that Paracelsus

felt that

there

effective purgative

—and Paracelsian cure — by a

to

the early

1560s.

himself was an arrogant man, but Guinter

antimony was being promoted as an specifically as

conciliate the warring factions.

He wrote

in

medicine.

important was the venerable

was

of value in his

The

conservative medical faculty of Paris

reacted quickly,

chemically-prepared remedies.

charging that

He sought

antimony

to

similarities

show

the

in

any

form was a

between the

Aristotelian elements and the

dangerous poison

Paracelsian principles and he

that

argued that the macrocosm-

taken internally

microcosm analogy had been employed by some of the

(1566). In a series

of decrees and court

ancients as well as Paracelsus.

cases this powerful

should not be Figure representing "The Spirit of Sulphur."

Engraving from Leonhard Thurneisser zum Thurn, Quinta essentia und Alchemia .

He

also suggested that cure

by

was not so different from that by contrariety.

The works of Severinus, similitude

Wimpenaeus and

body

any use of

tried to forbid

chemistry

in

among

the

.

younger physicians.

After Louis

medicine.

.

XIV was

cured with

Nevertheless, publishers

an antimony purge (1658) the

continued to print books

end was

in sight.

An assembly

favoring medical chemistry, and

of the medical faculty in 1666

Guinter give some idea of the

by the early years of the new

resulted in an

range of opinion that had

century courses in the

vote accepting antimony as an

Erastus,

overwhelming

developed by the early 1570s.

preparation of pharmaceutical

approved purgative, and

The tone of the debate became far more bitter in the coming

chemicals were available

that time there

By 1612 John Cotta expressed the views of many when he wrote that "the in-

faculty forced Theophraste

decades.

Paris.

in

In the 1630s the medical

Renaudot

to close his

was

after

little

resistance to the use of chemical

medicines along with more

Bureau

traditional cures in France.

The English

d'Adresse where he fostered the

reaction to the

numerable dissentions amongst the learned concerning the

use of pharmaceutical

new chemical medicine was

chemicals. But in 1641 the

closely related to the French

Arabicke and Chymicke

establishment of the Jardin des

scene.

plantes provided for a professor

English references to Paracelsus appear in the 1560s. In this

remedies

at this

day

infinitely,

with opposite and contradictorie

who

writings, and invectives,

operations. Although the

burthen the whole- world."

medical faculty

Although there was some debate over the more mystical

legal battles, they could

views of the later Paracelsians, the most inflammatory point

taught chemical

won

case

repeated

do

little

end the growing use of chemical remedies which to

became ever more fashionable

As

we

in

France, the

first

find that the authors

had lived

in exile in

Switzerland during the harsh reign of the

Roman But

Catholic Queen, Mary.

London College of Physicians was initially hostile if

the

9

to the chemists, this attitude

By

gradually faded.

Paracelsus was completed by

the mid-

Salih Ibn Nasrallah Ibn Sallum

eighties the Fellows of the

no

College planned an official

relatively large

pharmacopoeia

that

was

The number of manuscript copies of this work

to

include a section on chemically-

prepared medicines.

Moffett

who had

later

than 1640.

attest to the fact that the

Thomas

Paracelsian union of chemistry

taken his M.D.

and medicine had spread

was a friend of Peter Severinus, was placed in

beyond the borders of Western Europe by the mid-seventeenth

charge of

century.

at

Basel, and

this section since

he

had already written a defence of chemical medicines (De Jure et

Chemistry and

Chemicorum Medicamentorum, 1584).

Although the project was Praestantia

abandoned

at that

the Universities Throughout the sixteenth century the medical faculties of

time there

is

European universities

evidence of an increasing interest in the

value of chemistry. R.

Bostocke wrote an apology for the entire Paracelsian system in

The new pharmacopoeias helped

1585 and reference to specific

improve the dispensing of medications in Renaissance pharmacies. Woodcut from E. Feynon, Der Barmhertziger Samariter

Paracelsian preparations appear in the

works of a number of

late

Elizabethan surgeons.

century, the medical faculty of

this

recent chemists and

time against

them a

medicine as Joseph Duchesne

place and corner in the rear

to

(Quercetanus) and Theodore

so that they might be as a

Turquet de Mayerne. Turquet

servant to the dogmatic

might act as

the

in

prepared medicines. The preface to the Pharmacopoeia

—

by Turquet —

written

we

surely

states that

venerate the age old

learning of the ancients

and for

this

reason

we have

placed their remedies the beginning, but

other hand,

10

we

at

on the

neither

true chemical

Chymicum (1610) which became a model for later with

its

texts

division into animal,

vegetable and mineral

was

reprinted throughout the century auxiliaries.

In short, although interest

of the College and pressed for the inclusion of chemically-

first

often with additions and

dormant pharmacopoeia project

Londinensis of 1618

private instruction. In Paris

Jean Beguin established a

preparations. This text

medicine, and thus they

the country for

London where he revived

to find

textbook, the Tyrocinium

we

have conceded

left

learn about chemical operations

were generally forced

and wrote the

medicines of the more

such defenders of chemical

ultimately

ancient and Arabic physicians.

Those students who wished to

pharmaceutical preparations

spurn the subsidiary

went on the offensive

once more,

on

laboratory where he lectured on

After the turn of the

Paris

relied

the medical writings of the

chemical medicine

may have

originally been centered in

Germany and Switzerland, became widely known in

it

commentaries by others.

However, soon there were further chemical texts. The founder of the Jardin des Plantes,

Guy

de

la

Brosse,

England, France, and other

included a lengthy discussion of

European countries during the late sixteenth and early seven-

chemistry

teenth centuries. This influence

(1628), and after the

was even to be found in the Ottoman Empire where an Arabic work titled the New Chemical Medicine Invented by

appointment of William

in his

De

la

Natur,

Vertu, et Vtilite des Plantes

Davisson we find a succession of chemical textbooks written for the lecture series presented

at the

own

Davisson's

textbook was

followed by those of his successors; Nicholas

Le Fevre,

Christofle Glaser and

Moyse

in the

of Nicholas

appeared

in

Cows de

Dioscorides permitted the use

the broadest sense, but his

of some "stones and minerals"

teaching emphasized

in

Charas. The tradition cul-

minated

instance, the authority of

The professor, Johann Hartmann was a Paracelsian in

Montpellier, and elsewhere, for

Jardin des Plantes.

medicine and

it is

in this

tradition that a limited

chymie

Lemery which French in numerous

from 1675 to 1757 and was translated into Latin, German, English and Spanish.

However, the courses at the Jardin des Plantes were only editions

number

of inorganic substances were

accepted by physicians.

How-

ever, the first chain in chemical

medicine was created

at

Marburg

in 1609.

pharmaceutical preparations.

He prepared

editions of the

practical texts of Jean Beguin's

Tyrocinium and Oswald Croll's Basilica Chymica which were extremely popular.

one source for students to learn chemistry. Throughout Europe there

is

tutors

evidence of private

and chemical entre-

who

preneurs

established

courses of their own.

With a continually interest it was to be

growing

expected that the universities

would have to consider this new subject. But although the Paracelsians looked

upon

chemistry as a key to a

total

new philosophy of nature and man, it was the physicians who were most concerned. As the idea of a chemically operating

macrocosm and microcosm declined, interest in the medical

value of chemically prepared

substances grew.

was

that

The

result

chemical instruction

gradually

became established

in

programs of European universities while the the medical

natural philosophy curriculum

remained wedded

we would

to subjects

classify as the

physical sciences.

There

is little

the preparation of

doubt

that

some

chemical substances was taught in a

few

universities in the

sixteenth century. At

OWERTVRE DV COVRS

JIM

ili

Renaissance instruction in preparation of chemicals. From Annibal Barlet Le Vray et methodique cours de Chymie (Paris, 1 653)

1

Hartmann's appointment was the first of many.

A

course

in

through

his death, partially his

chemistry for

own works and

partially

through those of his

medical students was

followers

who

offered

expanded

his views.

at

Jena as early as

codified and

His

1612 by Zacharias Brendel and this was continued first

medicine came

by his son and then by

when many Galenic and

Werner Rolfinck who became the first Professor

other ancient medical texts

of Chemistry

rediscovered.

in the

rejection of establishment at

a time

had only recently been

Medical

The attack on was bound to

Faculty. His long tenure at

these texts

Jena ensured the importance

result in a confrontation.

of that university in this

prime area of contention for

These teachers wrote

field.

own

their

the Paracelsians

And

cation.

Central

European universities Wittenburg, Helmstedt, Leipzig

and Halle among them.

instructors published their

in

own

Both Oxford and

Cambridge began courses chemistry

in

Aftermath As chemistry became academicremedies,

began

its

1683, and even in

Paris the Medical Faculty

for the teaching of both

chemical and Galenic pharmacy in 1696. In short, chemistry

was well established in European universities by midcentury and it had become almost universal by the end of

However, the of chemistry was acceptance the century.

through medicine rather than

through natural philosophy.

And

to change.

so, in the late

and

medical emphasis as

it

did

seventeenth

century, the original concepts of the Paracelsians

in

established a professorial chair

were gradually

modified and diluted. One-time

van Helmont embraced the chemical philosophy no less strenuously than did Paracelsus, but they

moved on

to such areas

Mean-

as chemical physiology.

while, for Robert Boyle and others in the age of

Newton, the

decline in authority of the ancient

authors

and demanded the

metallic based remedies. Their rejection of humoral explanations

was anathema

made way

for a

new

mathematical and mechanistic approach to science and medicine.

Yet the effect of Paracelsus on medicine was

occurred almost entirely after

to the

medical

establishment, and their frequent

use of mystical and fundamentalist

interpretations strongly

mixed with hermeticism set them apart from other physicians.

By

Paracelsians such as Jean Baptiste

enormous. This influence

12

similitude rather than contra-

introduction of an armory of

ally respectable for its cures

Leiden

began teaching in chemistry 1 669 and here too the early texts.

principle of cure based on

riety,

established chairs in chemistry:

In the Netherlands

this the

traditional elements, sought a

conception of a mid-seventeenthcentury laboratory. Print, Francois V. Mieris, 1635-1681, NLM collection Artist's

teenth century the medical

many

But beyond

chemists questioned the

during the

second half of the sevenfaculties of

that of

the reform of medical edu-

textbooks

following the French tradition.

was

A

the mid-seventeenth

century there had been almost a century of debate, but

many of

the medical views of Paracelsus

were

to prevail in the end.

The

academic acceptance of chemistry by physicians surely was one of the chief accomplishments of his school.

Beyond

this, the

significance of his opening of

medical thought to

this

new

approach can be compared with that of the influence of

Copernicus on astronomy and physics during the same period.

Some Readings on Paracelsus

Although much of the work of Paracelsus and his followers has appeared in German, number of important

there are a studies in

English. Essential for back-

ground material is O wsei Temkin

'

Galenism: Rise and Decline of a Medical Philosophy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972).

Theophrastus Bombast, of Hoheneim, Called Paracelsus the Great (2 vols., London Elliott and Co., 1894).

The reader will Walter Pagel' s The Smiling Spleen: Paracelsianism in Storm and Stress (Basel et

al:

Karger,

many

1984) useful for

specific

Allen G. Debus has prepared a

aspects of the Paracelsian

short general introduction to

tradition.

Renaissance science and

discussed the English and the

medicine in the

in his

Man and Nature

Renaissance (Cambridge enjoyable introduction

to the life

and work of

in

The English

Paracelsians: The Chemical

Challenge

Henry Pachter, Paracelsus: Magic Into Science (New York: Henry Schumann, 195 1 ). However, for those who would go beyond this, a far more authoritative work is that Paracelsus

French scenes

Paracelsians (London: Oldbourne, 1965) and in The French

University Press, 1978).

An

Allen G. Debus has

is

of Walter Pagel, Paracelsus:

An

to

Medical and

Scientific Tradition in

Early

Modern France (Cambridge University Press, 1991). In The

Chemical Philosophy: Paracelsian Science and

Medicine

in the Sixteenth

and

Introduction to Philosophical

Seventeenth Centuries (2 vols., New York: Science History

Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance (Basel: Karger,

discussed the Paracelsian

1968; second edition, 1982).

tradition

Publcations, 1977)

up

to

Robert Boyle.

Several texts, including the

Of considerable

work on

detailing the

the diseases of miners,

have been translated in Four Treatises ofTheophrastus von Hohenheim Called Paracelsus, edited, with a preface by Henry E. Sigerist (Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1941). Selections from his writings may also be found in Nicholas GoodrickClarke, Paracelsus: Essential

Readings (Wellingborough: Crucible, \990) md'mParacelsus: Selected Writings, edited with

an introduction by Jolande Jacobi, translated by Norbert

Guterman (New York: Pantheon Books, 1951).

A

number of the alchemical and chemical works were translated

by Arthur Edward Waite in The

Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Phillippus

Debus

interest for

opposed views of

the Paracelsian,

Oswald

Croll

and his adversary, Andreas is Owen Hannaway's The Chemists and the Word: The Didactic Origins of Chemistry (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins Press, 1975). Bruce T. Moran has uncovered much new

Libavius,

material related to the teaching

of chemistry and chemical medicine at Marburg in The

Alchemical World of the German Court: Occult Philosophy and

Chemical Medicine in the Circle ofMoritz ofHessen (1572-1632), Sudhojfs Archiv, Beiheft 29 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1991).

A.D.

13

The Paracelsus Collection at

Hahnemann Medical College 1

Hahnemann University

in

Philadelphia was founded in

848 as a school devoted

to the

homeopathic principles of Samuel Hahnemann ( 755- 1 843).

1

It

was

for

the

successful center

first

homeopathic education

Much

the world.

in

as Paracelsus,

Housing over 200 volumes

—many and Old German —

dating from 1502 Latin

in

the

collection, in addition to the

original

works of Paracelsus,

includes early works on the

philosopher's stone, alchemy, botany, and a

first

edition of

breaking from the authority of

Robert Browning's poem,

Galen, taught that the basis of

Paracelsus. In 1881, a

medical science should be the

catalogue documenting the

study of nature, observation of

was published by Globe Publishing House and in 1932, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital produced a second catalogue of the Constantine Hering Paracelsus Collection housed at the

the patient, and experiment and

some 300 Samuel

experience, so too, years

did

later,

Hahnemann break

with the

medicine

tradition of allopathic

in his effort to establish a

more

benign, sympathetic approach to treating

medical

collection

College.

In conjunction with the

ills.

Constantine Hering (18001880), a student and follower of

celebration of the 500th

anniversary of the birth of

Hahnemann

Samuel Hahnemann, was a

Paracelsus,

physician, chemist, and zoologist.

University Library will present

Known

an exhibit of books and

pathy

as the father of

in

homeo-

America, he was one of

the founders of

Hahnemann

University. His passion

—

or

man and many

one of them, for he was a of enormous curiosity interest

—was

The Paracelsus Exhibit

will run

from October through

December, 1993

at

Hahnemann

University in Philadelphia.

On

Paracelsus, as well as material

to

He devoted

memo-

this collection.

the original writings of

the

all

works by or pertaining

from

display will be selections from

to obtain a

perfect collection of

rabilia

half a century to this pursuit.

documenting the initial reaction to him and his work. The

The

exhibit also will trace the

Paracelsus.

fruits

nearly

of his labour form

one of the principal collections

thinking of Paracelsus and his

of works by and about

philosophical progeny through

Paracelsus. This collection,

Hahnemann and Hering, with books and memorabilia from the Hering Collection.

known

as the Constantine

Hering Collection,

is

now

a

part of the special collections

of

14

Hahnemann

University.

Carol H. Fenichel

Paracelsian Works at the National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine's History of Medicine

£6fop6rafh'#<tw«lft/

Division holds an outstanding

works by Paracelsus. The Library's predecessor was the Library of collection of

fommm iw fcfc

wetQ

<£ai>6 ^fcffere t'n<&&<r

fif Icgcn /

and) fcmcr £u<)cn&/ ftaffe

bcnjcniqnnVhinimlid^riib bod? ronnotcn }ii tri|fcn, barnacb ficfc jubalrcn.

the Surgeon-General's Office

and the

first

Paracelsus work to

be acquired was the Opera

Omnia Medico-ChemicoChirurgica (Geneva, 1658)

which appears catalogue.

By

in its

1868

the 1880's and

the printing of the first series of the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-

General s

Office, there

(Sttrucfcfti$3(tfc( 6q>

©>?mtni 3puno.

M. D- LXXVI.

were an

additional thirty entries. Today, the Library's collection of

works by Paracelsus continues

Title

page from one

of

NLM's most

recently acquired works by

Paracelsus. Paracelsus,

Vom

to

ursprung und herkommen des Bads Pfeffers (Basel, 1576)

collection includes over 150 of

by authors of various countries

the titles listed in Karl Sudhoff's

who were

grow, with five titles having been acquired since 1989. The

Bibliographia Paracelsica. The earliest Paracelsus

collection

is

work

in the

a copy of the 1536

influenced by him.

also includes a large

number of

historical studies of Paracelsus' life

and contributions to

Ulm edition of the Grosse Wund Artzney... which contains

medicine and science. The

annotations in the hand of

resource for the study of an

Konrad Gesner. Among other

innovative and controversial

especially noteworthy holdings

Library's collection

is

a rich

figure in the history of medicine.

of Paracelsus' collected works

Access to all of these titles is provided through CATLINE,

edited by Johann Huser and

the Library's online

published in Basel between

catalog. In addition,

1589 and 1591.

these

is

the rare complete 10-part set

In addition to

works written

by Paracelsus, the Library holds numerous original works by his immediate disciples as well as

It

titles

book

many

are available

of

on

microfilm for loan and for purchase.

Margaret Kaiser

15

The Paracelsus

The Archives and Rare Book Division of Washington

1560-1588 which include the works published from the

Collection at

University School of Medicine

personal manuscripts of

Washington

Library

Paracelsus. Eighty-four

University, St.

Louis

(St.

Louis) contains the

holdings of the Robert E.

represent the

Schlueter Paracelsus Collection,

between 1589-1658, during which period there were publications by Paracelsists, such as John Glauber, William Johnson

on deposit from the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society.

Of significant

interest to al-

chemical and early modern scholars of science and medicine is this

exceptional collection,

and Ferdinand Parkhurst, including the Huser edition of his complete works, 1589-1591,

perhaps the world's largest intact

and the Latin translation

of works by, or concerning, the

(Frankfurt, 1603).

In addition there are

German Renaissance

enigmatic

more

physician and philosopher

than one hundred newer works

Theophrastus Bombastus von

such as facsimile editions, biographies, Kolbenheyer's

Hohenheim. Included are more than four hundred titles, primary and secondary sources dating from 1530; all materials are now cataloged and available through the

OCLC database.

The Schlueter

collection

includes the larger part of the

three dramatic works,

epic

poem, Wake's

Browning

'

s

translation

of his hermetic writings, and others. Lastly there is an extensive collection of odd

pamphlets and reprints of comparatively recent date.

Assembled

original writings of Paracelsus

in a lifetime

of

and surveys the distinct Paracelsian schools and revivals of interest that have flourished in Germany, England, France, and

discriminate collecting by

other countries over the past

was so focused and complete that it became a model for similar special collections which were

five centuries.

The

collection

consists of six titles of the twenty-

four

known

editions

which were

published during the life-time

between the

of Paracelsus, that

is

years 1527-1539.

The

is

the

first

earliest

edition of his three

works on Syphilis, 1530, and the latest

is

the third edition of

his Great Surgery, 1537.

There are

Dr. Schlueter, a distinguished St.

Louis physician,

this

unrivaled Paracelsus Collection

developed around other celebrated medical pioneers in other libraries of the world.

collection

is at

The

the disposal of

any scholar desiring to utilize the primary sources of a controversial, often times discredited,

pioneer sixteenth century

from the remainder of and seventy-seven titles from the

as

seventeenth century.

Phillippus Aureolus Theoprastus

161

titles

the sixteenth century,

Five

titles

represent the

important later editions between

1549 and 1560, including some translations. There are 131 titles of the publications between

16

titles

collected works

scientist,

surgeon and physician,

we celebrate the five hundredth

anniversary of the birth of

Bombastus von Hohenheim, later called Paracelsus.

Susan Alon

Internis

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Back cover

Crolii,

Basilica

Chymica

(Frankfurt, 1609)

illustration:

Paracelsian-era discussions often took place within a complex framework of symbols such as those shown here. Woodcut in Johann Daniel Mylius,

Opus medico-chymicum

.

.

.

,

Vol.

1

(Francofurti, 1618-1620).

N D

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